


An Unexpected Request

by malinaldarose (coralysendria)



Category: Earth: Final Conflict
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 08:21:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20189200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coralysendria/pseuds/malinaldarose
Summary: Renee has a request for Liam.





	An Unexpected Request

**Author's Note:**

> Set in late Season 4.

"Teach me how to fly a shuttle."

Liam looked up from the computer station where he was working. Renee had just entered the Lair under St. Michael's from the elevator, carrying expensive coffee house cups in either black-gloved hand. "What?"

"Teach me to fly a shuttle," Renee repeated. She walked over to the computer station and handed the bemused Liam one of the cups.

He sniffed appreciatively at the steam that rose from within when he removed the lid. Vanilla chai. "Thanks. Why do you want to learn to fly a shuttle?"

Renee divested herself of her long black woolen coat, revealing the red turtleneck sweater and black slacks beneath. She took a sip from her own drink. Liam could smell espresso.

"It would be fun?"

Liam's brow creased. "It wouldn't be 'fun,' Renee. You know we can't just take shuttles and go joy-riding in them. Have you ever even flown a plane?"

"I have, in fact," Renee replied with a hint of smugness. "I have a pilot's license. Which is more than can be said for you, Major." The emphasis she put on his supposed rank was to remind Liam that his entire past was fabricated.

Liam let the dig slide, taking a thoughtful sip of his chai. He could see tension in Renee's shoulders and expression, despite her efforts to hide it. There was something more behind this request, something more than Renee being bored or thinking it would be a good time.

"Flying a Taelon shuttle is nothing like flying a small plane," he said mildly. "For one thing, if you crash a small plane, it will be on this planet where there is a possibility that help will arrive. If you have an accident with the interdimensional drive, you could crash anywhere." He frowned. He and Augur hadn't really crashed, exactly, when Jonathan Doors had had his shuttle sabotaged, but the landing certainly hadn't been smooth. To say nothing of the fact that they had skipped sideways into a parallel dimension.

"Oh, come on," Renee scoffed. "That was one time. And you made it back just fine."

"What I'm saying," Liam pointed out, "is that your previous flight experience isn't applicable."

Renee frowned. "Who taught you? Lili Marquette? Who taught her? Was her previous experience applicable?"

"She was a fighter pilot, Renee. In a war. It was much more applicable."

Renee looked at him coldly. "This _is_ a war, Liam." She started to shrug back into her coat.

"Renee, wait." Liam caught one of her hands. "Why is this so important to you?"

She pulled against his hold for a moment, but he only tightened his fingers, holding her in place.

"Renee. Tell me," he said softly.

Her shoulders slumped and she turned back to him. He was surprised by the frightened look on her face. 

"I don't know," she said. "It's just a feeling I have. That I'm going to need to know." She looked away momentarily, her eyes searching the Lair for who knew what. Then she looked back, biting her lip. "I'm afraid that something's going to happen to you, that I'm going to have to go on fighting alone."

"Hey," Liam said gently. He gathered her into his arms. "Nothing's going to happen to me. I have a big shiny destiny, remember?"

Renee gave a watery laugh into his shoulder. "Destinys get people killed."

Liam tightened his arms, then released her. "Yeah," he said softly. "We'll just have to hope mine isn't one of those." He sighed. "Okay. I'll teach you to fly."

"Thanks." She gave him a small, relieved smile.

"I'll get Street to program a simulator down here. It's possible Augur even left one squirrelled away somewhere. You'll have to be proficient with that before I let you get into an actual pilot's seat, agreed?" He held up a finger. "And _I_ will decide what is meant by 'proficient.'"

Renee nodded. "Agreed. When can we start?"

Liam smiled at Renee's single-mindedness. Much of her tension had already drained away. Whatever intuition was driving her request, he hoped she would never need to pilot a shuttle. But it also couldn't hurt to have another trained pilot around, and he knew she would be a good one. She wouldn't allow herself to be anything else.

"I'll call Street," he said.

Renee nodded again and picked up her coffee.

**Author's Note:**

> I did watch Season 5 (once and probably never again) and it bothered me that Renee was suddenly a skilled shuttle pilot. As I am currently approaching the end of the fourth season on a rewatch, this occurred to me....


End file.
